You may not know we homeschool, unless you have read previous archived posts or you have read my “About” page.

But we homeschool.

I haven’t kept you abreast of our schooling because I often use Instagram as my photo journal and I have found that Willow (my camera) can be as unwelcome as a principal observing your classroom.

But we still do homeschool.  What you are going to see today, though – some of these photos are from back in November.  While God does often supercharge my time, I don’t want you to think I am Wonder Woman’s sister. (I miss that show.)

Raising Rock Stars PreSchool

Gabe has thrived using the Raising Rockstars Preschool, put together by my IRL friend, Carisa from 1+1+1=1.

You can download the entire curriculum (which is REALLY nice) for a small fee OR download each Alphabet lesson individually (very time consuming).

Carisa is a few letters ahead of us with her daughter, Ladybug, that allows me to copy gives me ideas to incorporate into Gabe’s learning time.

As you can see, I’m not adding to the curriculum.  I don’t want to keep Gabe “busy.”

Gabe is getting numbers, colors, shapes, phonics, fine motor skills, sight words, and even some Bible application.

In addition to Raising Rock Stars Gabe is completing the Foundations Program of Classical Conversations, Handwriting Without Tears, and Math-U-See.

While I do not think that Gabe will continue with Math-U-See past next year, I am loving his excitement to use his math blocks.

He has tremendous joy at being able to “say” numbers that are in the hundreds, just like his brothers.

The sweetest thing?  Gabe sees that learning is to be shared.

First Grade

This is how Ezra often “sits” for All About Reading.  He has become quite proficient at moving the letters with his toes, though he can use his hands.

All About Reading has really given Ezra a firm foundation in identifying phonetic rules and exceptions.

I will be honest with you – we are NOT doing All About Reading daily (some of that is also due to the fact that one lesson often takes us 2-3 days to complete).  We probably utilize it 2-3 times a week.  I do want to ramp up our usage, though, to complete it before summer break.

The repetition of Saxon Math 1 fits in nicely with our classical approach to school.  While he is annoyed at times with the repetition, the fact that he can breeze through his math facts has given him confidence that he can learn anything.

Ezra is attempting to become a Memory Master through Classical Conversations and is also using the Classical Conversations PreScripts to begin learning cursive.

So far the PreScripts have been my FAVORITE curriculum to learn cursive (I have tried three others).  The pages often correlate with what we are learning on our Classical Conversations timeline (though if you weren’t in Classical Conversations you wouldn’t feel “left out).  Additionally, there aren’t a lot of practice letters that often stir up grumbling and tired hands.

Third Grade

It seems that the older my children get, the less pictures I take of their school.  I suppose that can be blamed on the fact that there are several subjects that Asher now does independently (like math and handwriting).

Asher is using Pre-Scripts and what makes this handwriting super fun for him is that he has the opportunity to draw different time line cards from Classical Conversations.

When Asher isn’t studying for Memory Masters, we are working through First Language Lessons 3, completing tasks in his silver and gold sections in his TNT Awana handbook, getting irritated with Teaching Textbooks 4 (because it is challenging him), and concocting something in the kitchen.

Extra Curricular Activities

God has been stirring up in my heart a return to things that used to be my way of worshipping him.

We began by taking family music lessons with Lisa at Bongo Boy Music.

Which led us to Guitarmann . . . an online website that effectively teaches you guitar.  (And Stephen {aka Guitarmann} graciously gives my readers 20% off when you use the coupon code GRANOLA at checkout).

The boys are also involved in Taekwondo . . .

And we are focusing on getting seriously messy using pastels  (I encourage you to read about our “art as therapy”)  with A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels.

And you may ask, where is our science?

We get science weekly as part of our Classical Conversations community.  But we are going to read through Apologia Science this summer.

Changes to School

As you can see, we have slowed down and really stepped back from doing multiple curriculums and disciplines.

And it is glorious.

Linking up with:

How have you changed your approach to school this year?

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